“How do I get a school to pay in less than 60 days?” is a question we at Arc get asked all the time. The answer? You don’t. It’s best to assume it will take about 60 to 65 days. Schools have built-in procurement processes that need to be followed, but there are steps you can take to ensure you get paid as quickly as possible. This includes sending a W9 with the first invoice to the district, making sure the purchaser has signed off on the receipt for the product or service, and keeping a copy of the invoice attached to the school record in your CRM so the account managers can forward it again if the first one is misplaced. Providing a discount for paying within a certain timeframe usually results in customers taking the discount…and paying in 60 days. As investors, we are not concerned with the 60 day mark, but do want to see that payables over 90 days are no more than 10 percent of your revenue. Anything more indicates an issue with customer satisfaction or your internal processes.
